Hala’s career in housing & finance began in the 1990’s. She was a CRA Mortgage Lending Officer for several Savings & Loans in NYC. Through the mortgage origination work, she met and worked with HUD-approved housing counseling organizations and transitioned to a housing counseling opportunity at NHS of NYC in 1994. For the next eight (8) plus years, she worked in marginalized communities to make the dream of homeownership a reality for families historically ignored by traditional lenders. She counseled them on how to rehabilitate their credit, save money, and avoid foreclosure. This work deepened her understanding of the need for investment, access to capital and knowledge, and it reinforced the importance of homeownership & asset building as paths to financial empowerment and stability.
Hala joined Citi Community Development in 2002 and had various assignments ranging from developing affordable mortgage products and homeownership programs to managing the Citi Office of Homeownership Preservation (OHP) during the foreclosure crisis. OHP became the Office of Inclusive Housing (OIH), at the end of the crisis, and led Citi Community Development efforts on everything housing, creating, and preserving homeownership opportunities for LMI families and individuals through extensive investments in shared equity & land trusts, land banking, and supporting community stabilization efforts.
As Director of OIH, Hala managed National Nonprofit partners and advocates, supporting their efforts to find alternatives to foreclosure, solutions to the lack of affordable housing plaguing US Cities, and providing access to responsible mortgages. OIH was also responsible for planning and implementing strategies that facilitate the responsible disposition of REO’s, support the development and sustainability of policies, practices and programs that promote affordable sustainable homeownership, community stabilization, and blight abatement. Recently, Hala was a Fuse Executive Fellow with Austin Housing Finance Corporation for two years, ED of a small CDFI, and founded the Texas CDFI Coalition in 2023. Currently she consults and is a Lincoln Institute Vibrant Communities Fellow.
Hala serves on four (4) national non-profit boards; she is the Board President of Grounded Solutions Network, Board Vice Chair of ShelterForce, Chair of the Board of Managers of Homes for the future and a board member of Purple Heart Homes.
Purple Heart Homes, Inc. does not and shall not discriminate, when making determinations of whether applicants are eligible for services, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability.
Purple Heart Homes endeavors to provide services to and for disabled and honorably discharged Veterans, and will make applicant eligibility decisions on this basis alone.
501[C]3 Non-Profit
Founded by Veterans for Veterans
EIN 26-3516121
